


"It's an Engagement, not a Crime."

by FaunaProductions



Category: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms, Phantom of the Opera - Lloyd Webber
Genre: F/M, Trans Male Character, also a dysphoria mention, also gay philippe, supportive big bro phil, trans Raoul, very very brief reference to period typical transphobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26324086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaunaProductions/pseuds/FaunaProductions
Summary: Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny, was born into the wrong body, but that will not stop him from being with the woman he loves.-wrote this for transphantomweek hosted over on tumblr by jeremystollemyheart <3
Relationships: Raoul de Chagny/Christine Daaé
Kudos: 14





	"It's an Engagement, not a Crime."

"It's an engagement, not a crime."

He says the words with a matter-of-fact tone, but they both know it's not quite true.

The fabric squeezing his chest seems to tighten when she looks up at him.

The look says what neither will voice aloud.

Philippe hadn't been thrilled to hear about his relationship with Christine.

He'd always said they could figure something out if Raoul wanted to marry a woman, but he hadn't expected a chorus girl from the Paris Opera House.

It's almost funny that Philippe has always been supportive of Raoul's identity, but frowns upon a relationship with someone lower class.

Raoul has known since he was very young that he is not comfortable with the body he was born in, or the frilly dresses, or the long hair, or any number of other things that make him hate existing.

He told Philippe first, and the amount of grace with which his older brother handled it is something Raoul marveled at years later—he also considered, those several years later, that perhaps the reason he took it so easily had something to do with the man who used to spend long weekends at the de Chagny estate, and even came on holiday with them more than once.

Philippe is a bachelor—and a confirmed one at that, Raoul now knows—so perhaps that is why the idea of Raoul being more comfortable in a suit and with another name is not quite as ill-received as other families might have treated it.

Raoul remembers his first public appearance. A journalist had asked Philippe if he'd brought his youngest sibling, the little girl twenty years his junior, and he laughed, like the journalist had said something entirely incorrect—which he had, really, and Philippe had an incredible amount of elegance to the way he replied, "I've brought my youngest sibling, but I assure you, he is not a little girl."

The journalists laughed, and the man who asked looked embarrassed about his information being wrong.

"Let's not argue," Christine says, pulling him back to the present and pulling the conversation away from his statement.

Her fingers slip away from his hand and he watches her disappear into a crowd of colors and movement.

He wonders if he was foolish to even suggest marriage in the first place. He knew the obstacles they would face, yet he got her a ring, and he asked, and she said yes.

Philippe could surely get someone to marry the couple, but would it even be legal?

Would it matter, really, if it is or isn't?

Raoul and Christine are happy together, they love each other—they don't even need the marriage, it would mainly be for appearances anyway.

What a scandal it would be if Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny, lived in sin with a chorus girl.

He finds her in the crowd, taking her hands into his own, and he hopes he isn't doing the wrong thing.

"I love you," he says, and his eyes say a million more things he can't bring himself to voice.

"And I you," she replies, and her eyes acknowledge everything else.

He wants to marry the woman in front of him, but he thinks that even if he can't, just having her with him would be enough.


End file.
